High school drama taking stage

High school is frequently known as a “stage” where adolescent drama takes place. At the moment, we can confirm there is some seriously scary drama afoot, courtesy of the Clovis High School Drama Department.

This very night the Clovis High School Theater II students will perform a one-act play, “Seven Wives for Dracula.” These students have been busy the last six weeks preparing for the play.

Drama teacher Crystal Benfield shared, “This year students had a greater hand in putting together their costumes, set design ideas, and prop construction.”

Students also had to delve deeper into the art of theater makeup, since the cast of characters includes Dracula, a wolf-man, and several characters that have been drained of blood by Dracula — an interesting shade of makeup that must be!

Also, the play is acted “in the round,” being performed in the CHS Lecture Hall. Acting “in the round” takes a considerable degree of planning and blocking.

Benfield continued, “Students have been working so hard … the last three weeks. We’ve had daily rehearsals after school, more recently into evenings. Students have devoted tons of time outside class to memorizing lines, finding or creating props, and hunting down costume pieces.”

Cast and crew include:

Erick Akins, Miranda Andazola, Gage Barnett, George Byrd, Tory Cano, Allyson Dugan, Pedro Frias, Alyssa Hernandez, John Hernandez, Allyson Holdridge, Traci Kelly, Morgan Kyle, Jacob Millerleile, Nysah Quintero, Emilia Sanchez, Courtney Thatcher, Jasmine Villarreal, and Annaliese Weimer.

In addition to tonight’s 6 o’clock performance, the drama department has teamed with the English department to present the play to the English classes all day Friday.

It’s easy to see that pulling all of this together takes enormous effort from students and staff.

Benfield, reflecting on the process, described: “… One of the main lessons students take away is the absolute necessity of teamwork. It’s impossible for a play to be put together without everyone working together and supporting each other.”

The enormity of the task takes on a new perspective considering that Benfield teaches classes not only at CHS, but also at the CHS Freshman Academy as well as Marshall Middle School.

Benfield concluded her remarks with, “… How awesome it is to work in a district that supports the arts and with teachers who are willing to pitch in and help when needed; also with those willing to rearrange lesson plans for a day (CHS English teachers) to bring their classes out to the Lecture Hall to support our program.”

Theater teaches students many things: concentration, confidence building, self-discipline, trust, communication skills, collaboration, awareness of others and self. It strengthens students’ cognitive abilities with memorization and problem solving and, likely, many other things.

Thornton Wilder noted: “I regard the theater as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.”

Come out tonight for some high drama.

Cindy Kleyn-Kennedy is the instructional technology coordinator for the Clovis Municipal Schools and can be reached at:

[email protected]